Sour Times Original
by Scrunchii
Summary: After the incident in Raccoon City, the Tvirus manages to escape. A team of both experts and civilians find themselves in a strange town where the Tvirus seems to be the least of their problems. Introduction, Prologue, and Chapter One all up at once.
1. 001 Introduction

**Dummy**

**Sour Times**  
By Scrunchii

_001. Introduction_

**Dummy: Sour Times** is a mix of the first three Silent Hill games and the two Resident Evil movies and a bit of the two books, _Resident Evil Genesis_ and _Resident Evil Apocalypse_ written by Keith R. A. DeCandido. I first started the Dummy series as a single fanfiction called _Sour Times_ based on the song on Portishead's 1994 album, Dummy. I had just watched my Thea Tetta play Silent Hill as though I were watching a movie and the beginning of the song sounded like the song used on the introduction collage. I knew I wanted to write a fanfiction based on Silent Hill called Sour Times because of the similarity of the music but I didn't understand Silent Hill enough. After months, I beat the second game, given to me by my Thea Tetta as a present, and I still didn't completely understand.

Then I saw Resident Evil with my friend Amanda. Amanda and I waited for months, yearning for the sequel we knew_ had_ to come. And finally it did. I saw it on DVD for the first time and immediately bought it. It took a few weeks for me to realize that Silent Hill and Resident Evil combined would be awesome.

I realized later that they are two totally different concepts. It really hit me what Silent Hill is about after I saw the movie Jacob's Ladder (excellent movie, I really recommend it). But I had already started my fanfiction and nothing was detouring me. I finished it soon after and began my sequel, _Wandering Star_, which is also a song on Dummy. But I reread _Sour Times_ and was shocked at how bluntly and unsatisfyingly I'd laid out the story. I wanted more. So I decided to rewrite the whole thing. I had the entire eighteen chapters, including prologue and epilogue, saved on my computer so I deleted it off of as well as the sequel, which was also saved on the computer, and started over.

I promised to do this the summer of 2005. Now it is March 2006 and I finally finished the prologue and chapter one so I feel ready to post the first two parts of my new Resident Evil/Silent Hill series, Dummy, with my better understanding of the movie Resident Evil and the games, Silent Hill (I hope the upcoming film will be as satisfying as the games are!).

So here it is, hopefully new and possibly old readers, **Dummy: Sour Times**.

_Much love,  
Scrunchii_

* * *

_Sour Times_

From the 1994 album, "Dummy," by Portishead

_To pretend no one can find,  
The fallacies of morning rose,  
Forbidden fruit, hidden eyes,  
Courtesies that I despise in me  
Take a ride, take a shot now._

_'Cause nobody loves me,  
It's true,  
Not like you do._

_Covered by the blind belief,  
That fantasies of sinful screens,  
Bear the facts, assume the dye,  
End the vows no need to lie, enjoy,  
Take a ride, take a shot now._

_'Cause nobody loves me,  
It's true,  
Not like you do._

_Who oo am I, what and why?  
'Cause all I have left is my memories of yesterday,  
Ohh these sour times._

_'Cause nobody loves me,  
It's true,  
Not like you do._

_After time the bitter taste,  
Of innocence decent or race,  
Scattered seed, buried lives,  
Mysteries of our disguise revolve,  
Circumstance will decide._

_'Cause nobody loves me,  
It's true,  
Not like you do_

_'Cause nobody loves me,  
It's true,  
Not like you_

_'Cause nobody loves me,  
It's true,  
Not like you do_


	2. 01 Prologue

**Dummy**

**Sour Times  
**By Scrunchii

_0. Prologue_

"Welcome to Happy Burger. Can I take your order?" Josie Rodrigues droned in a bored, flat voice. Her eyes were visible proof of how much she did not want to be working today. Her usually neat brown hair with light brown highlits was pulled up in a messy ponytail. She wore no eye make-up or lipstick, although she was still just as beautiful as she usually was. The tall, overweight man with greasy hair stared up at the glowing menu above Josie's head with sincere interest. He was the kind of man Josie saw every day. He took fast food way too seriously. She sighed inwardly but kept the same fake, patient smile on her face.

"I think I'll have..." the man began slowly. "The...yeah, I'll have the double cheeseburger with extra large fries. And a large soda. Uh, and a salad too." Josie wanted to point out that having a salad with a bunch of fast food wasn't going to even things out but she was the cashier so she kept her mouth shut.

Josie smiled widely at the man and nodded. "Okay, thank-you, sir, your food should be ready shortly." She craned her neck around the man for the next customer and frowned as the door opened and Gregory Cooks - otherwise known as Cook both because of his job as the cook in Happy Burger and his last name - stumbled in, holding his hand to his chest. His bright yellow Happy Burger apron was stained with something red. Blood. Josie heard her best friend, Lucy Adams, gasp from the register next to her. "Cook!" Josie called out loudly to her old friend. "You okay? What happened?"

Cook shrugged. "Some guy tried to rob me and bit me." The tall, gangly boy flipped his black, ear-length hair out of his eyes and grinned his lopsided grin. "It's okay," he assured her. An impatient woman with tired eyes and messy blond hair cleared her throat loudly from in front of Josie's register. Josie sighed and smiled.

"Welcome to Happy Burger, may I take your order?"

* * *

Maria woke up to the sound of a long, loud siren. It wasn't the usual siren of the ambulance or fire truck. This was something else. It hurt her ears and seemed to grope at the back of her skull, as though trying to bring the back of her head through her forehead. She closed her eyes and held the back of her head in agony.

"Mama!" she yelled. "Mama!" She opened her eyes again and screamed. Her bed, floor, and dresser were soaked with blood. The walls were covered in thick sheets that were old and yellow. The door was rusted - or was that blood too? - and nearly falling off its hinges. "Shit," she hissed. She was so tired of all these wierd dreams. She'd been having them a lot lately. Maria sat up in her bed and wiped the sleep out of her eyes. Funny, she never had to do that in her dreams.

She pulled at the door but it wouldn't budge. Maria cursed again. As loose as it was on its hinges, the door was stuck tight. She looked around the room warily and studied the walls. Part of the wall looked detached from the rest. Maria grabbed a pole sticking out of her wall - a rusty, sharp pole with what looked like blood on the tip - and swung it hard against the wall. To her surprise and delight, the wall gave way and crumbled, sheets and all, to reveal the bathroom that was next to Maria's room. The toilet was a disgusting mess, old, dirty water bubbling in the toilet and overflowing onto the cold ground. Maria felt bile rise in her throat. She quickly turned away and hurried out of the bathroom into the hallway of the Rodrigues apartment.

She pulled at her brother's door only to find it in the same condition as her own bedroom door. Her mother's door opened but all she found was a room as disgusting as Maria's. Empty. She sighed and padded down the hallway to the living room. This dream seemed a little different from most. Usually a huge, disgusting monster popped out and tried to kill her. So far, to her relief, nothing like that had happened.

A low, gurgling noise came from the apartment next to her's. Maria felt her stomach flip. The little dog, Lulu, Maria had gotten for her birthday three years ago let out a nervous bark. Maria jumped. She'd never had Lulu in her dream before. She picked up the little dog and looked around. The thin, red leash Maria usually used for Lulu was laying conveniently on the table in front of her. She quickly snapped the dog's leash on Lulu's collar. She looked down at her outfit and suddenly froze. She was still wearing her pajamas.

Maria sighed and went back through the bathroom to her bedroom. The stench of rot was almost too much for her. She pulled open her dresser with more force than she'd ever had to use before and grabbed her baggy jeans, the small white tank top, and the large, red plaid button-up shirt. She pulled the jeans over her slim, tan legs and the tank top over her small chest. She left the plaid shirt unbuttoned, as usual. Maria usually dressed like this, although her jeans usually revealed boxers rather than today's normal underwear.

She grabbed Lulu and the two made their way out of the bedroom back to the living room. The pair left the apartment, Maria pocketing the key in her back pocket, and froze as they shut the door. Lulu growled as loud as she could and even let out a few barks as Maria stared in shock. The floor was made up of grates along the hallways, some missing a few squares which led to the first floor. The walls were rusted metal panels, one of which was falling onto the floor, revealing a blood bath in the apartment from which Maria had heard the gurgling. She felt vomit rise up in throat once again and turned away. Her best friend had lived in that apartment but she could see from where she was that Emma wasn't alive.

She picked up Lulu again, not trusting the little dog to follow without getting into trouble, even when on her leash, and ran as fast as she could down the bloody hallway to the door under the blinking "EXIT" sign. She pulled at the door but it wasn't budging. Maria felt fear grip her heart, her throat tighten. She stared at the floor where one of the grates was missing. If she dropped Lulu down there first, as gently as she could, she could probably drop down there. Maria got on her knees and peered down. The room seemed safe enough, putting aside, of course, the fact that it was just as bloody and disgusting as the other rooms.

Maria bit her lip doubtfully. It was either jump into the room or stay up there and wait for...what? Help? For the dream to end? Or something else?

Maria shook her head, not wanting to think about the something else. She carefully lowered the little white dog down into the room. Lulu barked like mad but there didn't appear to be anything down there. Maria took a deep breath and lowered herself down, holding onto the edge of the hole and letting herself drop until her arms ached. She looked down. She still had quite a ways to fall but if Lulu could do it without getting hurt, so could she. Maria let go.

She fell on her feet but immediately fell on her knees and groaned. "Ouch," she muttered. Lulu licked her face a few times before Maria stood up and brushed the dog away. She looked around the room, hoping there was an easy way out. The last thing she needed was to get stuck in here. It stank more than her own room had and that was saying something. She turned and felt her stomach do another flip. The refrigerator door was open, revealing a pair of legs sticking out. "Oh God," she whispered and ran into the bathroom, finally letting herself throw up. She wiped the bit of throw up left on her chin and sat up queasily. She felt her stomach do another dive and quickly turned back to the toilet.

When she was finished, Maria grabbed the leash of her dog and stormed out of the apartment. The door opened without any arguements but when Maria closed the door, she wished it had. Standing in the hallway was a creature Maria had never even imagined. Tall and skinny, it had no arms but looked as though its arms had been pushed inside itself and then stuck its elbows out. It had no real face though it did have a head. Its stomach was open, revealing two flaps. It bent backwards when it "saw" her and sprayed something on her leg. Maria screamed in pain. Whatever it had sprayed at her hurt like hell. Maria picked up Lulu again and ran. She wasn't sure where she was going or if that thing was following her, all she wanted was to leave.

She tugged at the main door desperately. The door flew open, revealing the foggy streets of Silent Hill. Maria rushed out of Wood Side Apartments and slammed the door behind her. She didn't stop running. She ran until she couldn't breathe. When she was finally barely able to walk, she stopped and sat on the porch of a house. She looked up at the streets. Blood was smeared on the gray asphault. Blood. Maria had never encountered anything like blood - or at least not that much in one place. The streets echoed in the slow, scraping footsteps of the creatures, things like that monster she'd seen.

Maria gathered her strength and tried to clear her mind. Where could she go? Where was help? Happy Burger. The answer was so clear in her mind, Maria didn't know how she could have forgotten it for a second. Josie, Cook, Lucy, and Mark were there. Her sister and friends. Her solids. Maria walked at a normal pace, hoping those things weren't very fast, and speed-walked toward Happy Burger, Lulu trotting to keep up beside her. When the parking lot finally came into view, Maria broke into a jog toward the lonely looking fast food restaraunt.

She threw herself against the doors and closed them quickly behind her. The restaraunt was dead silent. Blood was everywhere. Maria almost burst into tears. Not here too. A crash in the kitchen made her freeze. Was it one of those things? Was it Josie?

"Josie!" she cried out, her voice breaking. "Josie, is that you?" Her throat was sore with the tears she wouldn't let escape. Another crash. There was definitely something back there. "Josie! Please..." she said, her voice barely above a whisper. She held Lulu close to her, feeling the little dog's racing heartbeat.

"Maria?"

A tall, slim girl in tight, black pants wearing a Happy Burger t-shirt stumbled out of the kitchen, holding her bloody arm to her chest. Josie.

"Oh, God, Maria, baby!" Maria's older sister ran to Maria and pulled her into a tight embrace, her blood staining Maria's white tank top. "Where's Mama? Where's - Shit!" she hissed, holding her arm closer to herself.

"What happened?" Maria asked, helping her sister sit in one of the booths. Josie shook her head and shrugged. Maria looked around her and shuddered. Well, she thought, this is something I've never imagined happening...

"I don't know," Josie said in a hushed voice. She looked Maria straight in the eye, but the older Rodrigues sister couldn't hold the gaze for long. She looked back down at her bleeding arm. "Cook came in at the beginning of my shift and said someone had tried to rob him. They...bit him. We didn't think anything of it, but then...something wierd happened and he started attacking everyone."

"Attacking?" Maria lifted an eyebrow. She looked back out the window. Had it been one of those monsters that had bitten Cook? Or was it...was it something else?

"It was horrible...he was eating Mark!" Josie's voice was thick with tears. She swallowed. "We thought they were both dead when Lucy finally pushed Cook off of Mark and he hit his head on the stove. But then Mark got up and...and...he attacked Lucy and me. I killed Mark but not before he'd half killed Lucy and taken a chunk out of me." Josie looked down at her arm sadly. "Lucy died a half hour later and a few minutes later she...she...she got back up and then she tried to attack me. That's when I got this." Josie lifted her pant leg, revealing a bloody mess where her calf used to be. "I killed Lucy too. By then, the whole place was empty and I was the only one left. I can't leave here, Maria. _He_ won't let me." She looked up pleadingly at Maria. "You have to leave before he won't let you leave too!"

Maria backed away from her sister. "You killed Cook. Mark. Lu-Lucy?" Maria looked around desperately. "Why, Josie, you can't expect me to believe that they just...just died and came back to life? It's crazy."

"You've seen them too," Josie declared. "Maria, you've seen them!" She looked out the window of Happy Burger. Maria followed her sister's gaze and her eyes fell on one of the creatures that had attacked her in the apartment. "They're real," Josie whispered.

Maria stood up. "I'm not..." she began, but she wasn't sure what she wanted to say. Yes, she'd seen them. But she hadn't seen anyone come back to life. She hadn't seen Cook try to eat Mark. She hadn't seen any of that. She didn't want to. And she didn't want to believe.

But she did.


	3. 1 Chapter One

**Dummy**

**Sour Times**  
By Scrunchii

_Author's Note: The rewritten version of my old Resident Evil/Silent Hill fic is finally up and running! I hope this time the read is more satisfying. There are new characters, new secrets, new monsters, new, new, new! I really hope there are new readers too as well as old ones (although I think I've lost almost all of them since I took so long!) Please read, review, and enjoy!_

_Much love,  
Scrunchii_

_1. Chapter One_

Emilie van Sickle ran her hand through her thick dark hair and bit her lip until it began to pound with pain. She kicked the overturned car and cursed loudly. She thought Umbrella Corp. had taken care of this. Her two companions, two idiots by the names of Roger Bridges and Walter Sullivan, exchanged nervous glances.

"Quit it you two!" Emilie yelled. She frowned at the disaster of a city and cursed again. "How long has it been like this?" Walter was the first to answer.

"Eh, about five hours, give or take," he said with a casual shrug. How could he be so nonchalant when the cars were either bumper to bumper and smeared with blood or on fire or overturned, the buildings had blood along the sides, spray-painted messages on windows calling for help, bodies laying dead on the street?

"Five hours," Emilie repeated in a hushed voice. In her eleven years of dedicated work to Umbrella, she'd never witnessed a disaster as huge as this one. Raccoon City had been taken care of, that much was for sure, but now this? "This" had turned international. Canada was as gone as the States. Mexico would be next and before anyone could blink an eye, it would spread to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, maybe even Antarctica. The world destroyed because of the idiots Emilie had worked for without ever questioning their motives.

She'd known about the projects The Hive had been working on down there, she'd even known about Project: Nemesis. Emilie was high up there in Umbrella, but not high enough obviously. She knew that if she'd been high enough, this wouldn't have happened. But Timothy Cain had ignored her when she'd finally spoken up and look where he was now. Probably shuffling along as mindless as half of the rest of the population, dead but not entirely gone.

Emilie refused to become one of those. If it meant leaving Roger and Walter behind, she would do it. Emilie sighed again, grabbed her gun, and marched away from the pile of rubble that had once been a bustling city called Raccoon City.

* * *

Geri Walters took the plug out of the bathtub and pulled on her dark blue half-sleeve shirt and black pants. It was a cheap imitation of a police's uniform but Geri wanted to look as professional as possible. The gurgling noises of the water going down the drain were the only noises in the house. So far, the town was as silent as the name on the sign, "Welcome to Silent Hill." Her team downstairs was keeping watch while they each took turns bathing. So far they'd seen almost no sign of infection in the town yet it was completely abandoned.

She took a few moments to calm herself down, just relax before she went back downstairs to the madness that had become her every day life since the Umbrella/Raccoon City incident. She'd heard something about a few people - two women, a child, and two men - who had escaped Raccoon City unharmed and uninfected but she believed it to be nothing but a hopeful rumor. Everyone believed that it was they would could save them from the outbreak. Everyday Geri wished that she believed it to be true but she couldn't even imagine believing in such a far-fetched story.

No, she just went along every day with her team, an ex-Umbrella genius named George Weston, a weapon freak named Tony Ellison, and a blond who knew her guns named Staci Brooks. They searched from town to town for survivors, hoping to bring back civilization, maybe defeat the damn zombies - for Geri could find no other word to describe them - or at least learn to live daily knowing that the zombies were about.

Some tried to create "safe spots" where they collected survivors and attempted to recreate towns and live normally but the zombies were learning. They had begun to travel in groups and would attack the safe spots at night, starting with the guards, and moving into the actual town. This was what really scared Geri - they were learning. Before long, they'd know how to pick them all off and soon the world would be a pointless mass of zombies. And soon enough they would die off, they only had a lifespan of about three months anyway, and then what would the world be? Just another empty planet circling the sun.

But Geri had a plan. She and her team would collect survivors, but they wouldn't stay in the same place. They would travel and wait the zombies out. They couldn't go on forever. She knew they were outnumbered but eventually the zombies would die. Meanwhile they stole ammo and guns from abandoned shops and picked off a few of the millions of zombies and just searched.

They had just arrived from Ashfield where they'd found Staci with her dead boyfriend and rolled into Silent Hill shortly. Staci proved to be a little useful. She claimed to have been a weapons expert on an elite squad she refused to name. Geri couldn't help but find it suspicious that the girl wouldn't say anything about herself other than that she'd lost her boyfriend when he'd tried to save her from the zombies but she didn't pry any further.

She took a deep breath and quickly shook the extra droplets of water from her red hair and stepped out of the bathroom. "All done," she called down to the others. She heard a confirmation from Tony and then more silence. Then a gunshot.

"Shit," Geri hissed, grabbing her gun, and ran downstairs. "What happened?" Tony smirked and shrugged.

"Just another zombie," he replied smoothly, pointing to a bloody woman laying in the street. Geri shivered. She was usually fine with zombies, but this woman didn't look much older than twenty. She had something in her back pocket, Geri noticed. Without thinking, Geri flung the front door open and ran to the dead woman. She reached into the back pocket and pulled out the lump. It was a wad of papers. Rolled up in the middle was the black ballpoint pen the woman had been carrying with her.

Geri looked up and realized she should go back inside. The fog in Silent Hill was dangerously thick. Anything could sneak up on her and she wouldn't know it until it was practically on top of her. She ran up the steps and closed the door behind her. Finding a comfortable position on a stranger's couch, Geri unrolled the papers and began to read.

"My name is Erin Luch," the papers read. "There's something really wrong with this town. I hate it. It's not just those creatures. There's something else. The zombies are like a nightmare, but I've seen other things that aren't just zombies. They're like my worst nightmares. They're not like the zombies. They're attracted to light and loud noises. They aren't killed by just a bullet to the head. They take a lot more than that. One of them is really big. I'm really scared. I hope I don't see that thing again. But now I know it's out there. And that's enough to scare me to death. I think that's what's happening. I'm being scared to death."

Geri unfolded the paper just a little more. There was something in the paper. A small, golden cross fell into the palm of her hand. Geri bit her lip sadly. Erin Luch couldn't have been much older than twenty, twenty-one.

"What's that?" Tony asked, peering over Geri's shoulder. He reached into the palm of her hand and took the little cross. Studying the little cross, he said, "Cute. Good lil' Christian girl, of course." He dropped the cross back into Geri's hand. "You can keep it." He took the paper and read it with little interest.

"What do you think she was talking about," Geri asked casually. "The really big thing that can't be killed by a bullet to the head?"

Tony shrugged. "A licker?" he guessed. "They aren't killed by a bullet to the head. It takes a lot more than one." Geri nodded. The licker definitely couldn't be killed by a single bullet. Geri wasn't entirely sure what a licker was but it was big and bad. It had almost killed Weston at one point. The licker had a long tongue, about six feet in length, that it used as a whip and another arm. It had long claws that it used to climb and kill. Overall, it reminded Geri of some sort of sick combination of a lion, human, and something else.

"Yeah, but lickers aren't attracted to light and sound," Geri said. "They don't like light at all."

Tony shrugged. "Maybe she was hallucinating," he said, not really interested. "She sounded like she was going crazy anyway. Just forget about her. She's just another poor thing that didn't make it because of Umbrella." He looked up at Geri with a very serious expression. "You have to remember that, Ger, you have to blame Umbrella for all of this. Not anyone else. It's all Umbrella's fault."

Geri nodded and pocketed the note and - after a moment's hesitation - the cross as well.

* * *

Emilie shushed Roger and Walter with a single look and peeked back out through the crack in the closet door, watching the undead man shuffle through the office. He turned to the closet and snarled. Emilie screamed and kicked the door open, shooting with her 9mm as she did. The zombie fell back and onto the desk. Emilie motioned to Roger and Walter. The three made their way out into the main hallway. Why had they gone into this building anyway? What had Emilie thought they'd find?

"We have to get out of here," Roger whispered loudly. Emilie shushed him again.

"We will," she said in a fierce whisper, knowing she was being just as loud, if not louder than Roger. "This is harder than you'd think." Roger glared at her.

"Do you know what you're doing?" he asked doubtfully. "Maybe Walter and I should take over."

"Shut up and follow," Emilie ordered.

Roger and Walter silently obeyed, following the small dark haired woman without question again.

This building was so familiar, Emilie knew it from somewhere. How could she not remember it?

"There's something in here..." she said quietly to no one in particular. Roger immediately answered with an angry reply.

"How could you know that?" he said with a sneer. Emilie shrugged and ignored his question. The three silently moved along their way. _It's down there..._was all Emilie could think. There was something in the basement, she knew it. Something was calling her. She pulled out her 9mm and turned to the men.

"There's something in the basement," she said quietly. "We're going down there but I don't know what we're going to find."

"Well, duh!" Roger said loudly.

"Shut up," Walter said, finally speaking up. "Lead the way," he said to Emilie. Emilie smirked at Roger and began moving ahead again, trying to ignore the little voice in the back of her head, warning her.

* * *

The crunch of Weston's Cheetos was all Geri could hear as she lay in the bed upstairs. She'd pulled out the sleeping bag Tony had found in the trunk of one of the cars in the garage of the house and was trying to sleep but nothing worked. All she could hear was...

The crunching was too much, she couldn't stand it much longer. Geri rolled over and breathed in deeply. She had to relax, she knew it. She pulled out the little cross she'd found with Erin Luch's body and held it close to her body. It didn't work. She sighed with resignation and stood up, pocketing the cross. Grabbing her gun, Geri quietly snuck downstairs.

"Weston," she whispered. "I can't sleep." The short, plump man grinned up at Geri and made room. It was his turn for watch. Geri was supposed to take over in two hours.

"Morning," he joked. "Sorry, am I being too loud?" He motioned to the Cheetos bag sheepishly. "I'll stop if you want." Geri smiled and shook her head. Weston never ceased to get her in a better mood. She wasn't sure how he managed it as she was always the one with the bad temper.

"No," she replied kindly. "I wouldn't want to deprive you of your snack time." She reached into the bag and took out a handful of Cheetos for herself and looked out the window. "It's still really foggy," she noted. "I hope it doesn't stay like this. It'll get dangerous."

"Yeah, but maybe it'll clear by tomorrow. We're gonna have to go anyway, we've been here too long already," Weston added. "If we stay here much longer we're going to attract too many zombies." Geri nodded.

"I know." She looked down at her lap and bit her lip. "I just...I wish that, you know, we could just stay in one place for once. Just live normal lives again." She looked up at Weston. "I guess it's stupid. It's obvious we'll never live normal lives again."

"No, I don't think it's impossible," Weston said with a faint smile. "I think that those survivors of Raccoon City can help somehow. I think they'll be able to save us."

"You really believe that?" Geri asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What else do I have to believe?" Weston said, looking at Geri sadly.

"I don't know," Geri replied truthfully, and for once, she wasn't lying to herself.

* * *

"We have to get going," Weston said loudly, trying to get Staci and Tony to hurry. The two were still getting dressed upstairs. For some reason, they thought it necessary to continue to sleep in pajamas. Geri thought this stupid, what if they were attacked in the middle of the night? Would the two still be changing clothes while fighting back? "Now!" Weston added with finality.

"We're coming," Staci said as she came down the stairs, sounding annoyed. She was in the middle of tying up her glossy blond hair in a ponytail when she reached the bottom, her hair tie in her mouth. "Tony's just about down." Just as she finished her hair, Tony followed, holding both his and Staci's guns in his hand.

"Ready," he announced proudly. Geri glanced at her watch. It was already nine. They should have been out four hours ago but Staci had fallen asleep on her watch - again - and they all slept in. Geri shuddered to think what would have happened if a zombie had tried to get in.

"We're taking that van," Geri said, pointing to a dark green mini van outside the house. "I've already got it going, we were just waiting on you guys." She looked pointedly at Tony and Staci before leaving. The four filed into the van and started their drive through Silent Hill.

One building in particular caught Geri's eye. Spray-painted on the window of a fast-food restaraunt called Happy Burger was the message, "Help! Alive inside!" Geri grabbed Weston's shoulder.

"Look!" she said excitedly. "Maybe they're still alive! Pull over!" The minute the van stopped in the parking lot, the four leapt out of the car. Geri and Tony went to the front of the building while Weston and Staci took the back. The front door was locked to their disappointment but Tony took his gun out and shot it easily. Geri gingerly pulled the door open even though Tony had already made enough noise shooting the lock.

"Hello," she called out. "Is anyone alive in here?" A small bark from the back of the room made Geri jump. "Hello? We're here to help!" She turned to Tony. "Well, there's a dog in here," she said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but dogs don't spray paint messages on windows," Tony replied solemnly. He froze and grabbed Geri's arm. "Look," he said softly. Geri looked down. A dried blood stain went from one booth to the one across from it. Geri nodded.

"Hello?" Geri called again.

"What do you want?" a voice said from the back of the room, near where Geri guessed the dog had barked.

"W-we're here to help!" Geri replied, looking over at Tony excitedly. "Come out, we just want to get you out of here safely!"

"What are your names?" the voice asked. It was obviously female, definitely younger, probably in her teens. The voice had an accent but not overly strong, definitely Spanish.

"My name's Geri and the man with me is Tony," Geri immediately replied. She refused to lose her only survivor so far. "What's yours?"

The girl came out from the back booth into the open holding a red leash in her hand that connected to a collar, worn by a small, furry dog. The girl was short and skinny, wearing a small white shirt with an open plaid shirt on top. Her jeans were too baggy for her, revealing her underwear and a very flat tummy. Her hair was held in a messy ponytail, falling in front of her large, brown eyes. "Maria," she said. She held a 9mm in the hand that wasn't holding the dog's leash.

"Maria," Geri said smiling.

A scream that obviously belonged to Staci broke their introduction.

"Staci!" Tony yelled, running past Maria toward the back of the building. Geri ripped her gaze away from Maria and followed Tony. She heard Maria follow at a casual pace. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what Staci was staring at. Tony pulled out his gun.

It wasn't a zombie, that much was for sure. The thing had visible arms although it did seem to have elbows sticking out of its sides. It had a recognizable head but no face. The tall, skinny figure shuffled toward Staci, its walk slow and unbalanced. Staci screamed again and shot it twice in the head.

The thing didn't seem to care much. It paused for a moment then continued forward.

"Shit!" Geri heard Maria curse. "Just run past it, you'll waste too many bullets trying to kill it!" Staci looked up, surprised at the new voice, but she didn't hesitate to follow Maria's orders. Weston followed the blond into the main room. The two rushed past Tony and watched Geri as she pulled out her gun despite Maria's advice to ignore it. She shot the thing three more times before it fell the ground. But even after it hit the ground, the thing wriggled and began using its feet to crawl around. Geri recoiled in disgust and shot three more times. The thing finally stopped moving and Geri used her foot to kick it out the back door. She slammed the door shut and locked it, taking a deep breath.

"That," she said panting, "was definitely _not_ a zombie."

* * *

_Good? Bad? Ugly? Please review and give me some feedback, I'm always looking for good advice!_

_Much love,  
Scrunchii_


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